Peer Review Workshop ENG 113: Composition I

What Is a Peer Review Workshop? You will be paired with a classmate Read each paper Provide detailed feedback based on your active reading of the story A learning experience One of the best ways to identify mistakes in your own writing is to read the writing of others You get the opportunity to receive feedback directly from your audience

Benefits of Peer Review You “see” your writing through your audience’s eyes Identify the strengths and weaknesses in your writing that you may not see yourself You receive strong feedback to base your revisions on You must revise to improve your paper for the final portfolio

Challenges of Peer Review The reviewer does not offer constructive criticism Only positive = Great job! Only negative = Awful! Authors do not value their classmate’s opinion Only the instructor “counts” Reluctance to share work that is not “perfect” or “finished”

Overcoming Peer Review Challenges Provide constructive criticism that is useful for your classmate Detailed Specific Gentle Recognize that your classmates are your audience and their point of view matters Be open to feedback Peer review is beneficial to the reviewer as well as the author – you will both learn from each other Remember that writing is a process. Revision is a very important part of that process. Polish your writing Fix errors May never be “perfect,” but can get much closer

Peer Review Process Move to sit next to your peer review partner Introduce yourselves and provide details about your papers What feedback would be particularly helpful? Engage in Active Reading Read for your own reactions (subjective) Reread the text critically and annotate (objective) Reread to put it all together (subjective/objective) Provide constructive criticism – how did you react and why with specific recommendations for improvements

Introduce Yourself and Your Paper Each author should take a moment to describe his/her essay? What is the topic of the essay What is the main idea/thesis of the essay? What strategies did you use in your writing? Were there any parts of the essay that were particularly challenging or that you are particularly proud of? Do you have any specific feedback that you think would be helpful?

Focus Areas Main Idea Evidence Organization Assignment Is there a thesis statement? Is it clear? Evidence Appropriate? Enough? Organization Well organized? Assignment Does the essay fulfill the requirements of the assignment

First Reading Read through the paper once Get the “Big Picture” Be subjective – focus on your own reactions Do not need to make detailed comments or notes, yet, but you can mark interesting passages, confusing words, or other parts of the paper that you react to as you read

Second Reading Read the paper again slowly Focus on the text itself – be objective As you read, write detailed comments Use the worksheet as a guide What passages, sentences, or words are confusing? What passages sentences or words are effective? Pay special attention to the passages, sentences, or words you marked while previewing the paper What about them drew your attention the first time?

Third Reading Read the paper one more time Think about your reaction and the text itself (subjective and objective) How did you react to the text and what in the paper created that reaction? Think about how the author might revise the paper to fix the problems or emphasize the parts of the essay that work well Make sure that your feedback is detailed, constructive, and kind!

Discussion Take turns discussing each paper For each paper, the reviewer should share his/her impressions of the story and suggestions for changes and improvements Some Suggestions Peer Reviewer Be detailed Be specific Be gentle Author Be open to feedback Ask questions Remember – it is your story, so you can choose which feedback to incorporate in the final draft

Next Steps Hand in your drafts and worksheets to me I will also read the drafts, provide feedback, and hand them back to you We will have one-on-one conferences nearer to the end of the semester Use the peer review feedback and my comments to make major revisions for the final portfolio. Keep everything: you will need to hand in the rough draft and feedback worksheet with your final draft in your portfolio. Your final portfolio should include An introductory paragraph for each major paper that explains the revisions that you made and/or why you did not make suggested changes A fully revised essay with major changes based on the feedback